Nice Work If You Can Master It

Two years ago, Ann Hearn’s husband, actor Stephen Tobolowsky, got a featured role as a computer nerd in the CBS sitcom “Dweebs.” So the family--which never before had been digital devotees--felt it prudent to play with their computer. They signed up for America Online. It wasn’t long before Hearn found herself hooked on DragonRealms, an online game where as many as 1,300 players at a time meet in a medieval fantasy world called Elanthia.

Computer games were new to Hearn, a working actress for 20 years whose recent credits include NBC’s “ER” and the miniseries “A Woman of Independent Means.” She had studied medieval literature and history in college, however, and became enraptured with the sword and sorcery mythology of DragonRealms (https://www.play.net/simunet_public/drhome.asp). She was so smitten that she wrote the poem “Peri’el’s Song,” an account of how one of the game’s goddesses got the job of keeping a dragon at bay. Hearn submitted it to Simutronics Corp., the St. Charles, Mo.-based company that runs DragonRealms. The poem was a hit--it was incorporated into the game and Hearn was offered work as a game master.

Game masters supervise online gaming, handling everything from mediating player disputes to dreaming up and helping execute new adventures. Simutronics and similar companies routinely hire hundreds of people in this role, typically part-timers with other careers. Mostly they do it for love, not money. Game masters working full time at Simutronics, for example, top out at about $25,000 a year.

Around half of them have technical backgrounds, but others, particularly in role-playing games such as DragonRealms, are recruited for their creative skills. Simutronics Supervisor of Online Games Elonka Dunin said she often finds that left-brainers who are skilled at writing code can’t cut it in the ethereal world of storytelling and verse.

Hearn was reluctant at first because she felt unprepared for the technical challenges. But Simutronics liked her unique background: Not only was she comfortable in the world of make-believe because of her acting, but her college education gave her a unique mastery of DragonRealms’ medieval-inspired language and themes.

Hearn’s on-screen name is now “Alnilam,” after the middle star in Orion’s belt. Her recent work has varied from assisting a player who lost a “magical” device because of a system crash to helping a colleague create a plot in which a mad magician conjures up a volcanic eruption.

“I have no idea where this is leading,” said Hearn, who logs on to DragonRealms from 20 to 60 hours a week, depending on her schedule. Her work has stimulated an interest in learning more about computer programming--one of her main challenges is mastering the codes that organize the mechanics of the game.

With two small children at home, Hearn has grown more selective about the acting jobs she takes. But might she give up the theater for cyberspace?

“No way,” said Hearn, who views this job as more of a pastime than a career change. “This is a way for me to stay creative.”

Jennifer Pendleton is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.

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BIO BOX

Name: Ann Hearn

Job: Assistant game master

Company: Simutronics Corp.

Education: Master’s degree in theater arts, bachelor’s in medieval literature and history, both from University of Georgia, Athens

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